The session was led by Marelle Ellen, LinkedIn mentor, who shared lessons drawn from her own founder journey and years of working with teams, marketers, and early-stage companies. Rather than promising hacks or virality, the focus stayed firmly on what actually works — and why.

When everything starts to look like AI-generated content,
a real human voice becomes your biggest competitive advantage.

Why founder-led content works now

One of the core arguments of the session was simple: people trust people, not logos. While company pages still matter, LinkedIn’s algorithm — and human psychology — clearly favour personal profiles. Marelle illustrated this with a familiar pattern: polished company announcements may perform decently, but a single authentic post from a founder often outperforms them by an order of magnitude.

This is not accidental. On LinkedIn, only a small fraction of the feed consists of organic company posts. Personal content travels further, feels more relatable, and invites conversation. For small and growing companies, founder visibility is therefore not optional branding — it is part of the job.

Founder-led content supports the entire customer journey, it:

• builds awareness through personal reach
• creates trust long before a sales call
• shortens sales cycles by warming leads
• attracts media, partnerships, and talent

Your LinkedIn profile is a landing page

Before talking about posting, the session focused on something more fundamental: profile optimisation. Even founders who never post regularly still get profile visits — from Google searches, comments, shared connections, or meetings. When someone lands on a profile, they should immediately understand three things: what you do, who you help, and what to do next.

Marelle highlighted three sections that matter most.

First, the hero section. The profile photo, cover image, and headline together act as a first impression. The headline in particular should not list a job title, but clearly state the value you create or the problem you solve.

Second, the featured section. This is prime real estate. It allows founders to highlight a viral post, a product link, a booking page, customer logos, or media coverage — without requiring visitors to leave LinkedIn to understand credibility.

Third, the experience section. Often ignored by founders who are not job hunting, this section provides space to explain the product, outcomes, and proof in more detail. Testimonials and recommendations here serve as instant social proof.

Strategy before posting

Posting without direction is one of the main reasons founders burn out on LinkedIn. To avoid this, Marelle encouraged participants to define a simple strategy once — and then reuse it.

Key questions discussed included:

• What is your primary goal on LinkedIn: leads, investors, hiring, or visibility
• Who is your ideal audience
• Why should that audience follow you
• Which three core topics do you want to be known for

Rather than chasing trends, founders were encouraged to pick up to three consistent themes and connect them under one clear umbrella. This creates recognition over time and prevents the feed from feeling random or fragmented.

What to post when you do post

The session outlined four content types that together cover growth, credibility, and conversion.

Growth content
Lightweight posts designed to reach new audiences. This can include company updates, quick insights, or even playful content that shows personality.

Knowledge content
Educational posts that demonstrate expertise. These often have lower reach but higher relevance — and frequently lead to direct inquiries from the right audience.

Authority content
Social proof in action: customer results, case studies, testimonials, media mentions, or speaking engagements. These posts reinforce trust without heavy selling.

Sales content
Clear calls to action, used sparingly. The strongest sales posts still lead with value and context before inviting the reader to take the next step.

A recurring theme was balance. Vulnerability and honesty work — especially when framed with reflection and learning. Sharing only wins feels distant; sharing only struggles feels heavy. The most effective posts combine both.

Consistency beats volume

Contrary to popular belief, success on LinkedIn does not require daily posting. Marelle recommended starting with one strong post per week and committing to regular engagement instead. Ten minutes a day spent commenting thoughtfully on others’ posts often increases visibility more than publishing additional content.

Quality, she emphasised, always beats quantity. Even posting once a month can be effective if the content is clear, useful, and authentic.

Measuring what actually matters

Finally, the session addressed metrics. Impressions may feel rewarding, but they are not the end goal. Founders were encouraged to track metrics that reflect real business impact:

• profile views
• inbound messages and demo requests
• website traffic from LinkedIn
• leads and revenue attributed to LinkedIn

Seen this way, LinkedIn becomes less about performance anxiety and more about relationship building at scale.

The session concluded with a clear takeaway: founder-led growth on LinkedIn is not about becoming an influencer. It is about showing up consistently as a real person, making it easy to understand your value, and inviting the right conversations to happen naturally.